Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Macbooks - A Review of Apple's Latest Macbook

Apple release MacBook Air that has 13 inch display screen and it has thin, light, and has a decent battery capacity. This is a new technology laptop, the ultrabooks, have become popular based on Apple's pioneering efforts. For mid-2012, Apple has updated its system with a new Ivy Bridge processor from Intel. It has some new features that didn't exist in older laptops, like USB 3.0 ports and the potential upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion. If your MacBook Air is less than a year old, you can skip this generation because the Ivy Bridge processor is only a slight speed bump over the last generation. But if you're running an older MacBook (of any kind) with a Core 2 Duo or Quad processor, now is the time to upgrade. An Ivy Bridge processor in the new MacBook Air 13-inch, with a $100 price drop? That's a pretty good deal.

Design and Features

The new MacBook Air looks very much like the previous model, the MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,299 direct, 4 stars). It has the same wedge-shaped chassis that tapers almost to a sharp point. It even weighs the same as the previous iteration, at 2.85 pounds, like the previous model. The display is a 13.3-inch wide screen show with a 1,440-by-900 quality. This is the same quality as the past two years of 13-inch MacBook Air techniques. For enough moment, Retina show is restricted to the new MacBook Pro. The display is still shiny and obvious, though, and should keep most customers satisfied.

The system has the same aluminum unibody, silver bezel around the screen, and a similar set of physical ports on the sides (with a couple of exceptions). The new MacBook Air uses a MagSafe2 power connector that is shorter and wider than original MagSafe connector. The MacBook Air's 45-watt MagSafe 2 AC adapter has a T-shaped connector; hopefully, Apple has corrected the problems that led to frayed MagSafe cords in the late 2000s. MagSafeand MagSafe 2 are physically different connectors, so current Apple display users or users with spare MagSafe adapters lying around will need a MagSafe-to-MagSafe 2 adapter from Apple (a $9.99 purchase). The two USB ports are now USB 3.0, which are much faster than the previous USB 2.0 connectors. Of course, USB 2.0 (and USB 1.1/1.0) devices will still work with the USB 3.0 ports, though the transfer speeds will not be as fast as those of USB 3.0. The Thunderbolt connector, headphone, SDXC slot, and microphone carry over from the previous MacBook Air.

Performance

Some of the new Air models' biggest changes are found on the inside. For starters, the 2012 Airs use Intel's third-generation Core processors (also known as Ivy Bridge) for better performance, making Apple one of the first vendors to adopt these chips in their non-workhorse lines. Specifically, the 11-inch Air uses a 1.7GHz dual-core Core i5 processor with 3MB of shared level-3 cache, while the 13-inch Air uses a 1.8GHz version; a 2.0GHz i7 processor with 4MB level-3 cache is available as a built-to-order option. Like the previous Core i5 and i7 processors (known as Sandy Bridge), Ivy Bridge CPUs include hyper-threading and Turbo Boost. Hyper-threading lets the CPU's two cores be utilized by the OS as four. When only one core is needed for a task, Turbo Boost lets the chip shut down one of the two cores and bump up the clock speed of the other. Turbo Boost can reach 2.6GHz on the 1.7GHz i5 and 2.8GHz on the 1.8GHz i5. Turbo Boost on the 2.0GHz i7 CPU can reach 3.2GHz.

Last year's 13-inch MacBook Air was an already-stellar battery performer, but this year's version takes another step forward. In our video-playback battery drain test, the new 13-inch Air ran for 7 hours and 27 minutes, which is 41 minutes longer than the 2011 13-inch Air. That's the best battery life we've seen from any current MacBook, and leaves most Windows ultrabooks in the dust -- the Sony Vaio T13112FXS, a thicker ultrabook with an equivalent third-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, ran for only 5 hours and 42 minutes.

Service and support from Apple is always a dual-edged sword. Apple includes a one-year parts and labor warranty, but only 90 days of telephone support. Upgrading to a full three-year plan under AppleCare will cost an extra $249 and is pretty much a must-buy, considering the proprietary nature of Apple products. Support is also accessible through a well-stocked online knowledge base, video tutorials, and e-mail with customer service, or through in-person visits to Apple's retail store Genius Bars, which, in our experience, have always been fairly frustration-free encounters.

The June 2012 version of the MacBook Air doesn't change the equation much from what we saw last year: it's faster, has added USB 3.0, and has longer battery life, but much of the rest has stayed the same. However, the general improvements and configurations that cost $100 less than last year make the MacBook Air an even better purchase than it was a year ago, albeit a less remarkable one.

There are plenty of less expensive Windows ultrabook alternatives to the MacBook Air, but few that have the same build quality and performance. Added screen size, improved battery life, and an SD card slot still give the 13-inch Air an edge over the 11-inch model. In the world of MacBooks, this Air is still the go-to laptop to recommend... unless you have $2,200 to spend on a Retina Pro.

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